V. I. Lenin

Speech at the Meeting of theInternational Socialist Bureau on the Split in the Dutch Social-Democratic Labour Party{1}

October 25 (November 7), 1909

Published:Published on November 13, 1909 in Supplement No. 4 to the newspaperLeipziger VolkszeitungNo. 24.
      Translated from the German.
      Published according to text of the supplement.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,
      Progress Publishers,[1974],
      Moscow,Volume 16,
      page78.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004
      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of theGNU Free Documentation License.

BothSinger and Adler proceeded from a number of facts,
which I want to mention once again here. First, the split is a fact that
has to be taken into account. Secondly, according to Adler himself, the
Social-Democratic Party is a socialist Party. Thirdly, it has the
Incontestable right to participate in international congresses. The
S.D.P. it self does not even demand to be allowed to participate in the
decisions of the Bureau; it could be granted an advisory vote in the
Bureau, as was done in the case of a number of Russian parties. Fourthly,
Comrade Adler has found that the votes at international congresses should
be divided between the two parties in the Dutch section of the Copenhagen
Congress, while the S.D.P. is to be granted the right of appeal to the
Congress. Unanimity should be achieved on these four items at this
session. I want to add that Comrade Roland Holst mentioned by Troelstra had
come out for the acceptance of the S.D.P.

{1}The International Socialist Bureau—the executive body of the
Second International established by decision of the Paris Congress in
1900. Lenin became a member of the Bureau as the official representative of
the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party and he spoke at its Eleventh
Session on November 7 (New Style), 1909. On the meeting of the Bureau, see
Lenin’s article “The Eleventh Session of the International Socialist
Bureau” (see pp. 140–44 of this volume).